My Kind of Perfect (16 page)

John let out an annoyed sigh and furiously rubbed his hair
with his hand. “You're driving me crazy, Kaye. Can't you dirty your feet
sometimes?”

“Nope,” I muttered.

“Fine, then stay there,” he said, walking away in anger. I
watched as he grabbed the things and headed towards the depths of the woods.

Was he seriously leaving me behind? How could he? It's
dangerous out here and it's already getting dark. Holding my head out the
window, I shouted, “You're gonna leave me behind?”

He stopped on his tracks and turned back. “You said you
won't come out from there.”

“I...” I said back then looked down again and winced at the
sight of the mud.

“Keep your beautiful feet away from the mud and stay there.
I'm going up to the resort,” he said before starting to walk away again.

“Wait!” I exclaimed, “I'm coming with you.”

He stopped walking again and watched me instead of answering
back. I gulped and opened the car door. The first thing that greeted me was the
earth colored mud that was trickily placed on the ground.

Eww. Gross.

“Aren't you going to carry me or something?” I asked, hoping
that maybe he'd like to consider it. For the first and last time in my entire
life, I would let him touch me.

“No.” His answer was firm and relentless.

“Fine!” I removed my stilettos and stared disgustingly at
the mud. I told myself that I could do this with the thought that there was
always a flowing river in every mountain. There had to be. And after another
long moment, I lifted my dress and plunged my feet into the mud.

It was yuck.

Just thinking about the composition of this mud made me feel
like throwing up. What if there was a poop in here? And so, with the horrifying
thought, I hurriedly stumbled my way out. And as I was nearing the firm ground,
something caught my feet and I lost my balance.

Thud.

No. I just didn’t fell right into the poop mud.

“Are you okay?” I heard John's voice as soon as I got my
face off the freaking mud.

I believed that he was standing in front of me, and there was
the slightest hint of worry in his voice that he all failed to keep inside. As
I blindly searched for something to wipe my eyes and lips with, I swore that I
was now looking like a zombie covered with mud. I tried grabbing some clean
towel or anything that I could make use of. Then as if reading my thoughts,
John handed me a towel.

I hurriedly wiped away the mud in my face. Opening my eyes,
I saw the succumbed laughter in his face. I narrowed my eyes in dismay and
shouted, “Don't you dare laugh at me!”

Then that was when he let it all out. He let that one
annoying and utterly pesky laughter escaped in the air. As he was doing
so—annoying and all—I forced myself to calm down. I ended up convincing myself
that he was not making fun of me and I tried my hardest to compose my face.

Calm down.

He paused and studied me for a while and then laughed again.
And so the next thing I knew was that I pulled him into the mud—making sure
that his face hit the disgusting muck first. Now we were even. And as expected,
he angrily stood up after and I endearingly wiped away the mud on his face to
get back at him in a grand way.

“Why did you do that?” He was raged.

“Cause you laughed at me,” I said before turning around and
getting out of the mire. Then out of nowhere, instead of me walking away like
I’d conquered the world, John grabbed my dress from behind and pulled me. And
with all the pulling, I stumbled down and fell directly into the mud again.

Then he started to run and get away from me as fast as he
could. Really? Payback? I angrily slammed my hands on the mud in ire and
pointed my forefinger to him, warning him, saying, “You get back here!”

I saw him picked up our things and ran for his dear life.
Following him with a wrath incomparable to any other, I picked up the pace and
started running to him and also to the uncertain future where I was heading to.

Today may come out strong. It may take you off to another
place where destiny believes you should be heading to. All you need to do is
take that chance and move along, bearing in mind that somewhere out there, one
magical moment is just waiting to happen.

There are certain things that can make any girl feel crazy. At
times, it is that feeling that she never asked for. The one that will catch her
off guard. Yet, at the same time, it is that same feeling that can make her
realize that everything is just right.

“Wait! You're not making me walk that far!” I protested
while looking at the map that he held in hand. From where we had assumed we
were and the resort that Dorothy was talking about, the freaking distance was
vast. It was murderously vast, that as if just by thinking about it, it already
shot us dead.

“Whose fault was it that we were in this kind of situation?”
asked John, creating another argument again.

“Of course it is yours. If you only know how to get that
stupid car out of the mud, we won't be in this kind of situation in the first
place,” I said back to him, meeting his irritated eyes.

“But it was your idea that we make a road out of nowhere,”
he continued the argument, emphasizing more on the 'nowhere' part.

“My idea is fine. Blame it on your lack of driving skills,”
I told him, holding my arms across my chest.

“My driving skills?”

Oh crap, I hit the wrong button.

No one should even dare talk about his driving skills. For
him, that certain skill was his gift. It was like he believed that he lived
just to drive. Don't make me elaborate it any further, for I also had no idea
why that was so.

But taking on the gun and pointing it to my head, I continued,
“Yes, I'm sure I said the right thing. If it wasn't for...”

I froze instantly in place, my whole body went numb. Even
though we were in the middle of an argument, I clearly heard that fluky noise
which sounded more like a grunt. I looked at John and saw how the color drifted
off from his face. He know what that sound was for him to be that terrified.
Was I the only one who hadn't realized what it was?

But clearly, we both heard it and I was not just imagining
things. It was the sound of snapping of twigs followed by a scoff or something,
whatever that was. But surely, it wasn't a pleasant sound to hear when you were
just by yourselves and lost in the depths of the woods in this mountain located
in the middle of nowhere.

“You think...” I started saying, my words trembling as they
made their way out of my mouth.

He met my quivering eyes and I saw him nervously swallowed
the lump in his throat. Then he said, “I think that it's...”

Another twig snapped again, sending shivers to my skin.
“Goodness!”

“Kaye, I think it's a...”

And before he can finish off what he was trying to say, a
black boar that was definitely provoked by our presence appeared from the
woods. As if making its grand entrance even more spectacular, he scoffed
angrily and scraped his hoofs on the soil.

“Let's find a higher ground,” he whispered to me.

“Why are you whispering? It's not like the boar can
understand you,” I told him, trying to get the thoughts out of my head or it
might just kill me, if not the angry boar would do that part.

“Stop throwing words back to me. I'm serious. We should find
some kind of a higher ground,” he hissed.

The boar jeered again, moving even closer to us.

I was instantly alarmed. “Higher ground?”

“Oh good, now you're listening,” he said back, holding my
arm with his hand.

“Where exactly are we going?” I asked him, before making any
kind of movement. I was still looking at the boar and saw that it was, like us,
staring from a good distance.

“Not sure,” he said. Then before I could even answer
anything, he started dragging me on to the depths of the woods.

“Wait! Don't tell me you don't know where we are going,” I
said to him while running, catching my breath in between the words.

“Stop talking and just run. It's coming closer,” he
answered, looking behind to see the location of our 'assailant'.

We ended up running around in circles. And assuming from how
his head went back and forth in all directions, I think he was trying to find
that higher ground he was talking about earlier. Only that, it was not in
sight.

“A tree! We can climb that one,” I said, pointing to a tree
that had branches spread across. My heart skipped wild as I marveled on how the
tree seemed to be solely made for my rescue. It was a good thing that I was
generous enough to share a part of my luck with him.

He nodded and started pushing me up. It took me a moment
before I realized that he was violating one of my rights. “Stop touching me!”

“I'm not touching you. It's getting closer. Hurry up!”

I climbed up, yanking my feet on his face just to get even. And
then after several seconds, I reached a branch where I was sure, could never be
touched by that wild beast. John did the same and reached the spot a little
later.

And in a moment, which I was certain was also a product of
my utmost luck, the little boar arrived, still scoffing and puffing in anger.
If it wasn't for my luck, that boar could have had caught up with us earlier.
The beast looked around and saw that we were not in sight anymore. Then after a
moment of searching, he went to the other side, all fast and huffy again.

How did we even outrun that beast? I wondered about it as I
looked at its departing figure. Talk about what hormones could do. It could
actually make a normal person transform to a mutant for a moment.

And speaking of hormones, oh my, Johnny here held my butt a
while ago. Not letting it pass, I said to him, “Hey, just to remind you, I'm
off limits.”

He turned his gaze to me. “Huh?”

“Don't huh-uh me. You know what I'm talking about,” I said,
pointing to my perfectly shaped bottom.

“You mean a while ago? Come on Kaye, I can't even remember
the...” he said, lost for words as he looked at his right hand and tried
squeezing some air. Then he finished, “...feeling.”

“Feeling?” I couldn’t believe he just said that. “Of what?
The sensation of touching
that
?”

“Yeah,” he said, nodding. Then as if to tease me, a hint of
smile flashed on his face. It grew wider by the second.

“Don't you dare think about
that
!”
I spurted, warning him. In anger, I held on tightly on the branch where we were
seated and it sort of snapped.

“Woah, easy. Don't make us fall.”

“Oh, you will fall from that spot if you will continue to
think about that,” I said back.

“Well, you're the one who brought up the topic,” he said,
quite laughing to himself.

“And you're that amused?”

“Well, for most part, you are amusing,” he told me. Blinking
twice, I failed to realize if that was meant to be a compliment or an insult.

“Okay, let's get it clear. You're not allowed to touch me,”
I stated, trying to end the conversation and finalizing things.

“Pleasure is all mine,” he said.

I continued “You don't have the right nor do you possess any
kind of privilege to touch me. Just because you're my fake husband doesn't mean
that you possess those rights.”

“O-kay,” he faltered.

I was annoyed that he was not taking me seriously. I mean we
were talking about my rights here. It was the freaking right of an important
person named Kayla Wilson. He should be paying attention to my worries.

“What?” he asked. He must have seen how flared I was for him
to ask me what.

“Let's make a deal.”

“A deal? Aren't you tired of all the deals we’re stuck in?”

“No,” I said. “And in fact, I'm starting to think that deals
sound like a good idea after all.”

“Yup, it makes the world go round,” he sarcastically added.

“Whatever. So getting back to the point. I'm going to
penalize you every time you touch me,” I said to him.

“Penalize?” he asked, trying to find the rationale for what
he had heard.

“Yes, penalize. In other words, so as to make you avoid
touching me, I'll make you pay for each time that you touch me—accidental or
not,” I said to him, stating the verdict of the century.

Who wouldn't be scared of that?

“A thousand for one touch.”

“A thousand for a touch?” he echoed.

“Yes, a thousand,” I repeated.

“For one touch?”

I nodded.

Contrary to the scared face that I expected, a grin formed
on his face. “What about a hug?”

Hug? I already felt shivers down my skin just thinking about
Johnny here giving me a hug. And so I blurted, “A hundred thousand.”

He narrowed his eyes a bit as he moved up close. I felt a
flush creeping down my face. Seeing him from this distance, I was forced to
take in how he was scrupulously handsome. I moved back a little as I started to
have some funny thoughts of him kissing me out of nowhere.

And as if reading my thoughts, he teased me even more when
he said, “How about the price for a kiss?”

I pushed him hard, making him lose his balance for a while.
It was also kind of funny that after pushing him, I suddenly felt the need to
prevent him from falling. Talk about feeling your conscience speaking directly
to you.

After he regained his balance, I shouted, “Stop doing that!”

He laughed. “Doing what?”

“That!” I said.

Whoever was this man, he sounded a lot different that the
Johnny I once knew. He turned into someone else. Johnny never teased me like
that and Johnny never made my heart beat like that.

“So it's true that girls freak out when you do something
like that,” he said, as if he was stating that his experiment was an utter
success.

“Who freaked out? I'm not freaking out,” I defended.